The evolutionary pattern of early life history in water currents |
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Authors: | Kinya Nishimura Noboru Hoshino |
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Institution: | (1) Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Hakodate 041-8611, Japan;(2) Hokkaido Central Fisheries Experimental Station, Hokkaido Yoichi, 046-8555, Japan |
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Abstract: | Explanation of the characteristics of the early developmental stage of organisms is an important problem in evolutionary biology.
In studies to date, evolutionary biologists have proposed some theories that successfully explain egg size variation. Mesoscale
water movements may transport early life stage organisms in the aquatic biosphere. We propose a novel biological view to explain
the duration of the retention period at the spawning ground and egg size variations in aquatic organisms with a planktonic
stage at least during the early part of their life history. We develop a life history model of the early life stage of such
aquatic organisms that takes into account their adaptations to water currents and biotic environmental gradients in the currents.
We hypothesize that the distance from the spawning grounds to the nursery grounds and the biological richness of the currents
affect the adaptive life history design of these aquatic organisms, including adaptive retention time at the spawning ground
and egg size. Various studies of fish biology describe in passing phenomena that suggest the validity of our deductions, but
explicit empirical attempts to evaluate our predictions in the field of evolutional biology are needed. |
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Keywords: | Optimal retention period at the nursery site Optimal egg size Planktonic stage Spawning grounds Nursery grounds Water currents |
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